"The word for this week is grace, and it is one which pops up frequently in English language usage - perhaps more frequently in Romance languages such as French, Italian and Spanish. It comes to us from the Latin gratia", thence from "gratus" meaning pleasing or thankful. We use grace as a name for a beloved female child, in our deepest and most heartfelt prayers and meditations, to describe someone who is pleasing to the eye, or who is poetry in their motion.

Wendell Berry wrote of the indwelling balance, harmony and grandeur of the natural order as being "the grace of the world", and grace is present in every perfect word Mary Oliver writes. One of my favorite authors of urban fantasy, Charles de Lint, once described the great mystery at the heart of existence as simply "the Grace". No other word can ever begin to delineate the wonder of the perfect round world in which we breathe and dwell and wander all our days - the fertile ground underneath our feet, the water, rocks and trees around us, the radiant moon and oceans of dancing stars above us on a fine summer night, the company of good companions on this, our earthly journey.

I cannot claim to be graceful in my movements, lurching and fumbling along life's trail with an expression thoughtful, astonished and dazzled by turns. There is no poetry in motion here, and hiking boots, runners, sandals and "wellies" are more my style than ballet slippers - it would be deceitful to lay claim to any graceful movement whatsoever. Nevertheless, there is grace in this old life, and it is boundless grace of the most elemental and natural kind - the wild grace dwelling at the heart of life of which so many poets and authors have written eloquently.

Without saying the word aloud or even thinking it, what I am seeking in my slow rambles around the beaver pond or deep in the woods is a whisper, a mere hint of the world's indwelling grace, a fleeting glimpse into the perfect untroubled heart of things. Grace resides in new leaves, wild waters and old trees, in the stately movement of herons, the iridescent flash of bluebirds' plumage, the sundown songs of loons. When I encounter such grace, I breathe deeply and easily, and no matter what the troubles the earlier hours of the day have held, they vanish.

As is well-known, the word epicure comes from the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341 - 270 BC), now fairly synonymous with the word 'gourmet', although there is a more pejorative sense of an addiction to sensual enjoyment, particularly in earlier usage. It is perhaps less well-known that both of these usages have their roots in anti-Epicurean propaganda, an ancient determination to discredit, suppress and distort a powerful and remarkably modern philosophy.

Almost all of what Epicurus wrote is now lost, but we have enough fragments and references to form a pretty good idea of his philosophy. Ironically, Epicurus himself was something of an ascetic who ate frugally, drank mainly water and valued friendship above worldly goods and desires. He taught that our ultimate aims in life should be to live without anxiety, to cultivate friendship and ignore the gods, for he argued that the gods cannot conceivably be affected by what we do and therefore cannot possibly have any interest in us. He also taught that atoms are the fundamental, indivisible building blocks of the universe, that what we see around us is made of combinations of atoms and that there must be an infinite number of worlds, not merely the one we humans happen to live on.

The suppression and distortion of Epicurus' teachings is one of the great philosophical tragedies, probably accounted for by what he said about the practical irrelevance of the gods. Our use of the word 'epicure' is a reminder of our loss.

PSYCHIC POWER:

Every thought, emotion, desire or action is Karma. Each of these has a

vibration of its own. Every vibration has an effect, every action has a reaction.

We may not realize it but every thought, dream or feeling that we project knowingly or unknowingly has an effect in the world and creates our future. This means we all carry a lot of psychic power within us.

Psychic power comes with a responsibility too. We are all

interconnected in the matrix of life and whatever we project comes

back us sooner or later to teach us the lesson of love and compassion.

PSYCHIC AWARENESS:

Not everyone who has psychic power has been aware of their power. Many times we have sent anger, envy, hate towards others without even realizing that it is having a potential to harm others and us (if something could harms another it harms us as well).

We may have said - "Go to hell" or "get Lost" for example in a fit of anger and it is a negative energy that returns to the sender. When you were talking negatively to someone or yourself about life, the world, any happenings, relationships, etcit was also creating negative energy for the listener and yourself. We all are to constantly work on modifying such behaviors and adopting a more affirmative life.

PSYCHIC ATTACK:

There are also people who have been aware of their psychic power and know how to send highly focused vibrations. They may not have been doing this in a responsible way and may harm others intentionally thereby harming themselves too (if not sooner than later and with interest - the harm sent comes back multiple times to the sender until they learn the lesson).

This is what happens in a psychic attack. Some people who suffered from lack of full knowledge and were ignorant of the importance of magickal ethics were low on the responsibility part and used their third-eye or psychic power wrongly.

PSYCHIC RESPONSIBILITY:

We all are responsible to think pleasant thoughts and feel positive

emotions, to desire good things and to indulge in ethical behavior and

actions - towards ourselves and others. This is psychic responsibility

and people who had sent psychic attacks or negative vibrations to

themselves or others knowingly or unknowingly may have been less spiritually aware of the law of karma and about psychic responsibility due to lack of inner wisdom and absence of proper magickal and spiritual training and guidance.

Thankfully cutting edge magickal training and spiritual guidance is now available and is being accessed by many so we are becoming both psychically and spiritually aware of our psychic responsibility and ethics and people are learning how to be more positive and loving.

THE WICCAN REDE:

"Harm None Do as You Will" is a beautiful code of ethics that is

followed by many today as Wicca gains prominence as a religion and a

coherent spiritual system for enlightened masters. (More on www.globalwicca.com)

How to Know if you are under a Psychic Attack:

* You may have felt irritable, angry or unhappy without reason and prone to say or do something that harms you, your relationships or your life

* You may have found object breaking eg. glass, crystals, photoframes, etc, especially things that were significant to you

* You may have suddenly fallen ill without known cause

* You may have found that bad luck chased you suddenly, eg: you became accident prone, stumbled more, ran into losses or trouble for seemingly no specific reason

* More severe symptoms have sometimes been observed

* In case the person's mind was possessed by the negative attachment or energy, the individual may have refused to accept healing or be in a state of denial as well

* You may have recieved visions, intuitions and dreams that indicated psychic attack.

* Basically you may not have been the direct cause of these but a victim of a psychic attack.

* The best way to confirm is through divination (eg tarot cards) through the help of a reputed psychic expert.

WHO IS VULNERABLE

All that happens to us is a result of our inner world, Our subconscious beliefs, thoughts, emotions and desires become real. Even a psychic attack is somehow linked to your fears and insecurities as the universe is within us.

All of us have a little vulnerable child within who is innocent and needs to feel safe and this also makes us vulnerable. Even if we are powerful spiritual masters we need to constantly amplify our positive energy and keep ourselves strong.

Magick is not a one time thing but a constant way of life.

Some new age experts talk a lot about creating positive energy without giving due focus on cleansing, repelling and transforming negative. Its like wearing fresh clothes and perfume without taking a bath. Banishing negative is equally important.

HOW TO PREVENT AND HANDLE A PSYCHIC ATTACK

- PSYCHIC SHIELDING: This works best if you have learn energy healing

methods. Just visualize a shield around you in the beginning of the

day and at night before sleeping and again whenever you need it

through the day or night. This can be a sphere of blue or white light

in its simplest form.

- CRYSTALS: Hematite is known to shield you psychially. Wear or carry

hematite in the form of ring or pendant for example. It can also

absorb a strong psychic attack and break thereby warning you and

protecting you else the energy may have hurt your life instead.

Tiger's eye is a good reflective crystal and good against negative

energies. So is cat's eye. Tourmaline is absorbent and helps protect

you to an extent. Other crystals are garnet, amethyst, sugilite (a

powerful crystal related to Archangel Michael).

- HERBS: Sage, Angelica, Hyssop, Witches grass, Rue, Sulfur, and many

others can be used in spells, potions, oils and herb form.

- TALISMANS,YANTRAS AND AMULETS: The pentacle and the star of David are popular talismans for protection. There are several others too

and rituals and several other advanced methods that need to be learned

or followed under professional guidance.

A CASE STUDY OF A PSYCHIC ATTACK:

I have been using Hematite rings for quite some time now and havefound they usually do not break unless they absorb negative energy. Last year for a small period of time they broke continuously though I kept replacing them. It was brilliant that some of them broke spontaneously

without any externally visible force.I also used tiger's eye in angel and pendant form to provide additional protection and these too broke almost immediately - an indication of a strong psychic attack.When we start working with energy things become even more clear to us.

I performed a divination and also recieved psychic messages of who the attacker was and found that there were more than one. It is important that we do not return a psychic attack with an attack. Harm in return of harm can only spoil things further. I focused on sending healing vibrations to myself and others.

I found the reason for this was the emotional insecurity of

the senders of this psychic attack whose negative belief systems were

creating this type of energy for me and a friend of mine.

I also did chakra-meditations and spells to heal the negative and

convert it to positive, for example a binding spell to prevent the

person who is trying to harm you from harming you further.

I also performed a spell to reverse the negative effects of the attack

from my past.

If the person who attacked you tries this again as I found out in this

case we need to give further healing. Recently I found that this

individual once again tried to send a psychic attack to me creating

ripples of confusion and misunderstanding between me and a significant

other for which I had to perform a ritual cord cutting and banishing.

It is necessary to cut the cords between you and the attacker so that

the same scenario can be prevented in future and to send blessings and

healing to all concerned including the sender of the psychic attack so

we all become more positive and less prone to negativity.

Thankfully I know many spells to repel and reverse negative energy but it is great to be warned clearly and I am glad that I have the knowledge and skills to identify negative energy and heal the same.

I focused on forgiving myself, the attacker and all others who played a role in this situation. It is not necessary for us to carry the pain and suffering in our heart no matter what others may have done. It is up-to us to release the pain from ourselves and forgive so that we can move on further, detached from the negativity. This does not make what they did right. This only means we stop hurting now and release the unwanted energy and emotions.

I also send love and compassion to myself and others including

the one who intends me harm as I believe that people who are happy and loved do not harm others. We all need and deserve love and happiness, and happy people do not hurt themselves or others. I focus on creating happiness and focus on sending love to myself and others.

When I find myself becoming bitter and insensitive I try to realize the same as soon as possible and to cancel out these negative effects through healings and spells and by looking within me for answers.

"NOTE: ALL TECHNIQUES MENTIONED ARE ADVANCED METHODS TO BE LEARNED OR ATTEMPTED UNDER THE RIGHT GUIDANCE OF AN ESTABLISHED EXPERT"

MOST IMPORTANT ADVISE

Do not go looking for negativity and do not make it a habit to obsess over psychic attacks and so called black magic or dark arts constantly. There are some people who have been blaming all their life problems on black magic and psychic attack instead of meditating and discovering how they attracted this to them in the first place. A Psychic Attack may be in some way or another your own negative karma coming back your way.

If these things exist they are only indicators of our own inner vulnerabilities and weaknesses that they expose bare open. When something like this happens try to address the inner weakness and vulnerability that they represent within you. Always remember - The Universe is Within and each thing we observe and experience, each person, place or situation, is only an aspect of our self that needs love, healing and positive transformation.

Blessed Be

This Athena Holy being Carving depicts Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, employees, fair play and mediation. She was the gorgeous child of Zeus. She had sprung now then disposed out of her father`s front. Her mother was Metis, goddess of wisdom and Zeus's young group.

In attention to detail that Metis would manage a son mightier than himself. Zeus swallowed her and she began to make a robe and hat for her toddler. The hammering of the hat caused Zeus incalculable strain in the form of headaches and he cried out in harass.

Clever Hephaestus ran to his father and separation his president open and from it emerged Athena, now then disposed and fashionable her mother`s robe and hat. She is the virgin mother of Erichthnonius.

This Athena Holy being Carving can be used a bottom thesis in rituals and spells that encirclement fair play, official cases, expeditious inner wisdom and knowledge, divination, and for confronting negative energies and demonic entities.

Athena Holy Being Carving Specifications:

Icon Casted

Approx 12" Far Above The Ground

In responding to a question about the spells I have posted here I realized that I omitted a couple of points regarding the performance of those and other similar magical workings. In "Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae" Aleister Crowley writes the following:

When these are committed to memory, he will begin to understand the nature of these correspondences. ("See" Illustrations "The Temple of Solomon the King" in this number. Cross references are given.)

2. If we take an example, the use of the table will become clear. Let us suppose that you wish to obtain knowledge of some obscure science. In column xlv., line 12, you will find "Knowledge of Sciences."

By now looking up line 12 in the other columns, you will find that the Planet corresponding is Mercury, its number eight, its lineal figures the octagon and octagram. The God who rules that planet Thoth, or in Hebrew symbolism Tetragrammaton Adonai and Elohim Tzabaoth, its Archangel Raphael, its Choir of Angels Beni Elohim, its Intelligence Tiriel, its Spirit Taphtatharath, its colours Orange (for Mercury is the Sphere of the Sephira Hod, 8), Yellow, Purple, Grey, and Indigo rayed with Violet; its Magical Weapon the Wand or Caduceus, its Perfumes Mastic and others, its sacred plants Vervain and others, its jewel the Opal or Agate; its sacred animal the Snake, &c., &c.

3. You would then prepare your Place of Working accordingly. In an orange circle you would draw an eight-pointed star of yellow, at whose points you would place eight lamps. The Sigil of the Spirit (which is to be found in Cornelius Agrippa and other books) you would draw in the four colours with such other devices as your experience may suggest.

That sounds like a lot, but it's actually simpler than it at first appears. The study of "Liber 777" is important for two reasons. First of all, when performing a ritual you want the correspondences to immediately leap to mind, which is impossible when simply working off a script. While it is possible to work magick successfully from a text, the better you know the symbols and objects corresponding to your operation the better your magical results will be. Second of all, knowledge of the correspondences will enable you to make your own personal adjustments to the scripts as they are written here. You can add appropriate magical weapons, incenses, essential oils, stones, metals, and so forth based on the correspondences and in many cases this will help to amplify the effect.

I don't work with physical circles very much any more since I have a permanent temple setup with altars at the quarters and so forth, but there was a time when I did. I often get questions about the best way to set one up, especially on a temporary basis. My personal favorite method is crepe paper. You can get rolls of it inexpensively in many different colors and it can be taped to the floor or a rug to in the appropriate shape. Traditionally a magick circle is nine feet in diameter if you have the space. Once you've laid out the circle, you can make the appropriate number of points around it evenly and set down the proper lineal figure. At each of the points of the figure you would then place candles, preferably encased in glass like seven-day candles. You don't want to inadvertently knock one over and set the crepe paper on fire - one downside of using it is that it burns really easily. You can use plain white candles or candles that are an appropriate color to the operation. For my rituals posted here, this would be the color of lineal figure, which should match the color of the hexagrams traced in the Greater Ritual of the Hexagram.

The Sigils from Agrippa can be found here. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see the Table, Seal or Character, and the Sigils of the Intelligence and Spirit of each planet. The Table is used to derive the Sigils but it is not generally traced on a talisman or ritual implement. The Seal and Sigils, however, should be. The Seal corresponds to the supernals on the Tree of Life, the Qabalistic worlds of Atziluth and Briah. It should be drawn in the King and Queen Scale colors. The Sigil of the Intelligence corresponds to the Qabalistic world of Yetzirah and should be drawn in the Prince (or Emperor in "777") Scale color. The Sigil of the Spirit corresponds to the Qabalistic world of Assiah and should be drawn in the Princess (or Empress in "777") Scale color. There are a few oddities, such as Sigils for the "Intelligence of Intelligences" for the Moon and Venus and the "Spirit of Spirits" for the Moon. As far as color goes, a spirit is a spirit and an intelligence is an intelligence, whether or not it is plural.

Generally speaking, the symbols should be drawn together on one piece of paper or parchment that will then serve as a talisman linked to the operation. For certain kinds of magical work, such as healing spells, you might want to draw the Sigils on your own body in the appropriate colors if you are healing yourself or on the body of the person you are trying to heal. In such a circumstance it is perfectly fine to use some sort of water-soluable marker for this since the Sigils only need to be present while you are performing the ritual. It you decide to use a paper talisman for such a ritual, though, carry it around with you after the ritual to maintain a contagion link to the spell or have the target of the operation do the same if the ritual was worked for someone other than yourself.

NOT LONG AGO, AN ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY CAUGHT MY EYE. TEXAS GOVERNOR Rick Perry signed two bills into law, one opposing gay marriage and the other restricting abortion. Rather than conducting the ceremonial signing in a state office, flanked by officials or staff, he stationed himself in the gymnasium of an Evangelical school, with Christian symbols in the background and an out-of-state evangelist at his side. Shouts of "amen" rose from the audience. Meanwhile, outside the school, protesters called for separation of church and state. For days after the signing, the internet crackled with similar "amen's" and protests.

The afternoon after I read about Perry's bold fusion of Christian symbols and governmental powers, I went to my hair dresser, let's call her Ann. While Ann worked, she told me about an experience that had shaken her the night before. She had gone to a movie with an old friend. Afterward, over coffee, the friend expressed how worried she was about Ann going to hell. She explained that the only way out of this fate was to be saved by Jesus Christ. "I told her that I just couldn't believe that stuff," said Ann. "I tried to explain why, but I didn't want to get in a fight. She wouldn't stop. Finally I said that I had to leave because I needed to get up early. But I was so upset that I didn't get much sleep afterwards. I can't believe the same things she does, but I get scared that maybe something is wrong with me. I need to talk to her because I don't want this to wreck our friendship. I don't know what to say." The questions examined in this book have never been more relevant.

When I was growing up in Arizona, most of my friends, neighbors, and role models shared my Evangelical beliefs, and when they did not, we didn't talk about it. When I was in graduate school working on a degree in psychology most of my fellow students and professors shared my religious misgivings, but we didn't talk much about that either. When I settled in the Northwest, I also settled into a posture of "don't ask, don't tell" with regard to spiritual questions. Religion had little place in conversations, whether among colleagues or friends.

In this, I was not alone. Except in churches and religious forums, the general consensus in our pluralistic society during the latter part of the twentieth century was to keep private faith out of social conversation and public debate. Since the year 2000, something has changed. Religious beliefs and moral values are now discussed in every form of mass media. They have become topics of conversation among even casual acquaintances. George Bush and the religious right, for better or for worse, have reopened a conversation in America, a conversation about the meaning of faith and morality and Christianity. This conversation has been driven by Evangelicals, and consequently, much of the debate has been about Evangelicalism itself.

Led by organizations that focus more on advocacy than theology and emboldened by increasing political clout, Evangelicals have come out of the closet. In November 2004, the religious right claimed credit for putting George Bush back in office and demanded payback in the form of laws that advanced a conservative social agenda: funding for faith-based social services, restrictions on reproductive education and contraception, bans on civil unions for gays, and changes in science curricula to make room for the biblical creation story. The media sat up and took notice. Articles began cropping up in the mainstream press about dominionism: the belief that Christians have a moral responsibility to run the country, and ultimately the world, according to biblically derived principles of governance. Conservationists bewailed "end-times" theology, which predicts the impending return of Jesus Christ, making climate change and species extinctions matters of indifference for some believers.

Recently I had lunch with a small group of people who are trying to build public policies that protect the poor, the ill, and children: those whom Jesus called "the least of these." During the conversation, one person, a young attorney, announced that he was Evangelical, adding for emphasis that he prayed to Jesus every day. No one else had announced his or her spiritual beliefs, and yet nobody flinched at the proclamation or thought it off topic. The young Evangelical said that if the group wanted to succeed in helping vulnerable populations, they needed to engage others who shared his beliefs. All at the table agreed.

Why could the young attorney make his announcement, confident that it would be well received? For two reasons. First, although he may not have been among other Evangelicals, in virtually any gathering in the United States it is safe to assume that the majority of people present are people of faith. Second, thanks to the prominent role of Evangelicals in the press and in public life, non-Evangelicals are increasingly aware of the growth in Evangelical religion and are anxious to understand how this growth may affect their own communities, deeply held values, and spiritual priorities.

Newspaper headlines, evangelists, and astute politicians may talk about a secular assault on religion, but the truth is that the United States is more religious than any other developed nation. In a recent poll, ninetyeight percent of Americans said they believe in God (in contrast to about fifty percent of Germans). In U.S. census data, less than one half of one percent self identify as atheist, and another five percent or so call themselves agnostic. About eighty-five percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian and forty to fifty percent call themselves born again or Evangelical. A secular assault on religion? Politicians know better. They accuse their opponents of shunning faith and religious values precisely because potential constituents across the political spectrum are virtually all people of faith in one form or another.

The strong inclination of Americans toward religious belief is neither new nor news. Non-Christians have always been a small minority of the American population and non-theists an even smaller minority. The change that has occurred in recent decades has been primarily a shift within Christianity itself. For over thirty years, while enrollment in mainline Protestant churches has been declining, Evangelicalism has been quietly gaining ground, offering a very clear set of core beliefs and behavioral rules to those who otherwise might hold more convoluted or vague forms of faith. Utilizing good marketing practices and modern technologies, Evangelicals have built communications empires that broadcast their message around the globe. As traditional communities have fragmented, Evangelicals have built communities centered around churches that offer not only meaning but also friendship, counseling, legal advice, leisure activities, and mutual aid.

These benefits come with conditions attached. They are offered only to believers or prospective believers of a very specific sort. Some faith traditions provide social services to nonbelievers simply for the sake of promoting a more humane society. Catholic Community Services or Lutheran Family Services, for example, are open to all comers, with few strings attached. Evangelicals do things differently. Social services are offered to outsiders first and foremost as a means of winning converts. This means that testimonials, teaching, Bible studies and so forth are a part of the package. Evangelicals call this witnessing or sharing the faith.

Without this piece, which offers the hope of salvation through faith to those who are otherwise lost in sin, social services have little value. In fact contact with nonbelievers in general has little value, and when Evangelicalism is at its worst, the nonbelievers themselves have little value.

Evangelicals, as they like to say, prefer to be "in this world but not of this world." They see themselves as a people apart. The most devout buy their books almost exclusively at Christian bookstores. A small but significant minority home-school their children if they can't afford private Christian schools. Many socialize only with members of their own church communities or people they meet through related organizations. In spite of their growing influence, Evangelicals often see themselves as an embattled minority. And because many don't believe that other Christians are Christians, they see Christianity per se as an embattled minority religion.

On a plane in India, I once sat in front of an American teenager who was part of a youth missions trip. He was talking earnestly to an adult companion about how hard it had been to approach young Indians, interrupting their conversations and activities to tell them the Good News: that they, too, could be saved by Jesus Christ. The young man speculated: "What if someone threatened me? What if they even threatened to kill me? Would I have the courage to face death in order to carry God's message to the world?" I remembered, as an earnest Evangelical youth, asking myself these very same questions. The adult mentor might have reassured him: History suggests that Christianity has been lethal to missionaries far less often that it has been lethal to those on the receiving end of the message. Instead, the mentor responded as such mentors often do, with stories of martyrs and language of warfare that both affirmed the rightness of their mission and cultivated a sense of imminent threat.

Otherness and threat, political power and moral certainty. It is no surprise that this combination is generating anxiety among nonbelievers and non-Evangelical Christians. In the past, when political power has accrued to any Christian orthodoxy that demands exclusive allegiance, the result has often been dangerous for both outsiders to the faith and Christians who don't hold the dominant view. Is such an environment in the making? At least among some Evangelicals such a possibility has become thinkable.

A recent book review in "Christianity Today", a mainstream Evangelical publication, ends thus: "[Flannery] O'Connor once wrote that 'more than ever now it seems that the kingdom of heaven has to be taken by violence, or not at all. You have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you.'...we mortals are playing in a world increasingly given to moral relativism. As the title of one of [O'Connor's] best stories put it, 'The life you save may be your own.'"

"What is Evangelicalism?" a bewildered friend asked recently. "How does Evangelicalism relate to fundamentalism?" These questions are not easy to answer. The term "Evangelical" has been around since the Reformation, and its meaning has varied. In modern terms, Evangelicalism is a kind of Christianity that structures itself around one particular, ahistorical interpretation of the Bible. From the Bible, which is taken literally and accorded absolute moral authority, Evangelicals justify a set of doctrines that govern day to day life in realms ranging from prayer and parenting to civic life. These doctrines are described in detail in Chapter 2, and their implications fill the remainder of this book.

Fundamentalism is a movement that arose within Protestant Christianity in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, largely in reaction to modernism. The name comes from a set of essays called The Fundamentals that were published between 1910 and 1915. These essays were intended to combat the ways that theology was changing in response to scholarship in archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, psychology and biology. They reaffirmed the traditional Christian doctrines that form the basis of modern Evangelicalism. Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism are closely related, and both are offspring of traditional Christian orthodoxy. However, the term fundamentalism is now used to embrace a variety of absolutist approaches to religious faith both inside and outside of Christianity. Few Christians call themselves fundamentalist. Many call themselves Evangelical.

Those who do, hope and pray that others will join them. In their eyes, there is no alternate path to God and, ultimately, no other form of goodness matters. This means that, as context and culture allow, Evangelicals will continue to speak out, both in the public sphere and over coffee.

What should you say when a dear friend or family member expresses concern for your soul and offers you a path to Salvation? How should you respond to Evangelical advocacy in your community, your workplace, your school, or your government? The answers depend in large part on your own values and spiritual identity. But in order to form those answers, it helps to have a clear understanding of the core teachings of the Evangelical movement and when these teachings pose threats to love and truth.

Chapter one: Leaving Home

If you are interested in reading further, "The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth, "is available at www.lulu.com/content/220355; more musings by this author at www.spaces.msn.com/awaypoint

(ESTABLISHING SHOT) A weary ADVENTURER, wearing battered armorand 10 glowing rings, clutching a potion bottle, and laden with all manner of weapons, magical devices, and sacks of gold, lies panting on the ground outside of the seedy-looking entrance to a grimy Dungeon.The nearby scenery is uniformly grey and uninteresting.

Bluff Male Voice: Retrieved the Amulet of Yendor too many times tocount?

Sultry Female Voice: Can't see anything in the Eye of Larn?

BMV: Eaten one too many Zombie corpses?

SFV: Run out of Greater Gods to kill?

CLOSE-UP: The ADVENTURER's sweat-streaked face, which isnicked and bruised. He has a black eye.

The ADVENTURER nods wearily, and, it seems, with some boredom.

MBV+SFV: Then take the ultimate challenge... The final quest... OMEGA!

(PAN VERTICALLY TOWARD SKY)

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Ooooooo -- mega!

A shaft of brilliant sunlight pierces the overcast sky,revealing a Mystic Portal in the sky. A rainbow bridge lances fromthe portal toward the ADVENTURER. As the ADVENTURER hesitantly sets foot on the bridge, he (with the viewer) is swept through the M.P.in a masterpiece of computer animation. There is a flash of light,and a TRANSFORMED ADVENTURER, in newly polished and chromed armor,wielding a flaming sword, strides confidently toward an edifice that makes the Castle of Ultimate Darkness look like a sandcastle. Thelandscape is vibrantly colored, and we feel that there are newchallenges awaiting just over the horizon.

TMTC: Magnificat! Magnificat! Magnificat!

BMV: Coming Soon to a site near you!

SFV: Challenge Omega -- The Final Quest!

As the ADVENTURER passes through the entrance to the AWESOMECASTLE, a giant portcullis slams shut behind him with the force ofa Death Star bulkhead, and we hear a muffled scream, soon cut off.

Satanic Male Voice: If you dare!

"Jesus said to his disciples, "Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?"

It is striking to me how the Lord tells us that we should not hide our light nor place it on the floor, but that we should lift it high on a lampstand for the entire world to see!

Am I doing my part to share the Good News?

Yesterday morning I spent four hours speaking to four different groups of 8th graders at a Catholic school. For me, it was a wonderful experience. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Why? Because I could see a real transformation (conversion) in their hearts and minds. I was sharing my Catholic faith with them in a no nonsense manner. Almost all the children asked the question, "Why did you choose to become a priest." They were stunned when I told them, "It is not I who chose Christ, but Christ who chose me. I simply answered his call." Another child asked, "Is faith a gift or a choice?" I told the kids, "It's both. The Lord gives it, like you give a gift. Now, it is up to you to either accept it or reject it."

Another child asked, "Why do I need to be Confirmed?" I answered, "The Sacrament of Confirmation gives you everything you need to live in this world, do battle in it and be successful. Remember, you will be receiving what the Apostles received (except for Judas) and what all the Saints received.

By the look in their eyes, I could tell that they were having a hard time believing this or understanding what I was trying to saying, so I made a comparison they could all understand. Once child blurted out, "But sometimes it seems as though Confirmation doesn't work!" Forgive me if I sound heretical here, but I told the kids that Confirmation was like receiving an "iphone." PLEASE DO NOT HATE ME!

Before you stop reading this meditation or put an end to your free subscription to my blog (or tear your garments in disgust), let me explain. This is what I told the kids.

"Imagine for a moment receiving an iphone as a gift (n.b. they didn't have to imagine it because most of them already have it!). You can do so many things with it, right? You can send and receive phone calls and text messages, listen to music and watch movies, record audio and get Internet access. These are just a few of the things you can do with an iphone. But now imagine if you only used your iphone to make phone calls. You would not be using it to its full potential, correct? "

"Well, the same can be said about Confirmation. When you receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, you will be receiving everything you need for life! You will receive seven free apps (gifts) of the Holy Spirit. You will receive the gift of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety, knowledge and fear of the Lord. But what you do with all these gifts will depend on whether or not you chose to use them. That is totally up to you. Confirmation does not take away your free will. In fact, you are free to turn off your Sacrament and not use it at all. But if you do choose to let loose the graces, then you will discover what the Lord can do for you! And believe me; he can do amazing things if you just let him!"

They seemed to like the analogy. I hope you can use this for your children and/or grandchildren that are preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

May the Lord strengthen your commitment to Him and that of your children or grandchildren!

Article by Vik

Folks who wish to start meditation need to understand that it would certainly take time for them to learn. Nobody can learn meditation and harvest it's advantages in a short time period. Patience plays a very important role for all those folks that are new to the sector of meditation. For newbs, there are many eBooks which offer the best meditation techniques for beginners.

If you're looking for information related to TIBETAN BUDDHIST MEDITATION or any other like meditations for women,online guided meditation, lululemon ormeditation transcendental you've come to the right article. This piece will offer you not just general TIBETAN BUDDHIST MEDITATION info but also specific and constructive data. Like it.

This is one of the meditation techniques for uneasiness that involves concentrating on respiring process. All you need to do is target your mind on each and every breath. Also, known as silent meditation, this method focuses hard on the pace at which respiring happens. When we breathe, we take in oxygen and give out CO2. So, one has to focus on this rhythm of respiring when following this meditation method.The 1st stage of meditation is basically a strategy in concentration. Once relaxed, focus on your breath for a few minutes. After you find yourself completely relaxed and at ease, focus on the sounds around you. Try not to form thoughts about the sounds but rather just listen and let your intellect flow around and thru the sounds without clarification or judgment.

Simple meditation strategies for kids will teach them something much more crucial than any other lesson ever could. It will be the most influential exercise of their life as the power to give deliberate thought and concentration of their own mind will remind him / her how to use the imagination in a targeted and positive way.Using these strategies will open you to a world of thought management, directional focus and a deeper appreciation of self and acknowledgment of others. By concentrating on the bre! ath as y ou develop your meditation and concentration abilities, you may start to subconsciously associate these tranquil and relaxed feelings with the control over your breath.

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Millions of people all around the world use meditation strategies to chill and revive their bodies and their minds. One of the most constructive meditation techniques is called led images. Steered imagery uses music or sounds with verbal proposals to help align the body-mind connection.

The biggest obstacle for folks wishing to know where to begin is the various meditation.methodologies and knowing whereabouts to find the correct and supportive information they seek before choosing a appropriate method to try. There's so much info out there on meditation and speculation, some will be more advanced and some will be the easier systems targeting primarily on relaxation and breathing exercises.

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Now visualise yourself sitting in a grassy field, in the bright sun, at the base of a beautiful, green mountain. At the very top of the mountain is an ancient stone castle, wrapped in mist. The air around you is clear and fresh, and the sun is nicely warming your body. About the Author

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As evidenced last week, we're in for quite a treat with this season of Next Iron Chef, aptly named "Redemption," in which chefs who crashed and burned in other seasons have been given a chance to come back and show food nerds like ourselves their greatness.

In tonight's episode the tensions were high as last week's winner Alex Guarnaschelli was given the task of dividing the remaining chefs into three teams of three who would be going head to head in the Chairman's Challenge where this time they would be required to cook global

This came as a surprise to our crew of food super heroes because the challenge began at Nickel Diner in downtown LA where the chefs thought they would be given the opportunity to work their collective magic on traditional diner food.

But with the theme being global, donuts, bacon, and American cheese were thrown out the window in favor of tacos, falafels, and banh mi sandwiches.

In light of that, Alex had the difficult job of picking the teams and I thought she chose wisely, pitting chefs with less experience with particular types of cuisine against one another and placing herself against Spike and Duskie in the taco category for what looked like an easier win for Alex based on the street cred and experience of the group as a whole.

The teams were as follows:

As an aside, Greenspan of redemption grasshopper fritter fame, called out his competitors as "The Banh Mi group of death," and I don't blame him. In head to head competition this early in the season Appleman and Faulkner would not be my first choice of chefs to compete against!

As another aside, Spike was channeling his inner Ninja Warrior as he looked into the camera and said: "It was a bad pick picking me to be on her team, because since my show down, I'm in the zone right now."

Spike, Spike, Spike... you are up against my girl Alex G - in other words, Godspeed, and may your knives be blessed.

The dye was cast (to steal a line from host Alton Brown) and the chefs were given 60 minutes to create innovative versions of their assigned dishes. Nate Appleman put together a banh mi fo, Chef Faulkner attempted a banh mi ravioli (but got tripped up cooking her pork), and Chef Greenspan, who said "If you can't be innovative you can't be an Iron Chef," came up with an amazing banh mi panzanella.

The innovations were every bit as amazing for the other two teams and when the time of judgement came, Chef Mehta's take on falafel won. Greenspan's panzanella and Alex's taco also received high marks while Chef Freitag, Chef Duskie, and Chef Faulkner - who was none too happy with comments from the judges - were left to compete in the secret ingredient show down which featured white bread.

While all three chefs came up with incredible offerings for the secret ingredient challenge, Chef Faulkner blew me - and the judges - away with her amazing menu which included a french toast ice cream.

Not only was hers the winning dish, she was told it was in the top five of best dishes ever created in the history of Iron Chef!

Week 2 - girl power, going strong!

In the end, it was a close decision, but Duskie who won the internet challenge and made a ravioli to remember, was asked to go home.

As a non chef I like to play along with these challenges, and elevating myself to "Iron Home Cook" - here's an innovative (and incredibly delicious) recipe I've come up with using white bread.

I hope you enjoy!

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Jill over at Breaking the Spine started this and I believe that it's awesome" This blog post is to alert those that visit about "the" book that we cannot wait to get our hands on. I have decided to participate because I have a list that can go on forever and ever and it is interesting to see what else others are "waiting" for also.

My choice this week is the much awaited book Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog. The cover is gorgeous and the blurb leaves me wanting for more.

FAIRY TALE BY CYN BALOGReading level: Young Adult

Hardcover: 256 pages

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (June 23, 2009) Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. But when Cam's cousin Pip comes to stay with the family, Cam seems depressed. Finally Cam confesses to Morgan what's going on: Cam is a fairy. The night he was born, fairies came down and switched him with a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, heir to the fairy throne, to die. But both things happened, and now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King.Even as Cam physically changes, becoming more miserable each day, he and Morgan pledge to fool the fairies and stay together forever. But by the time Cam has to decide once and for all what to do, Morgan's no longer sure what's best for everyone, or whether her and Cam's love can weather an uncertain future. SO...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

There seems to be some controversy among Pagans about Wicca/Paganism becoming to organized. The fear, I believe, is that if Wicca and other Nature Based religions get to focused on running Legal Churches and maintaining a non- profit status that the Spiritual aspect of the religions will suffer. I hear the cry, "Nature is my Religion," Which seems a bit ironic, when I see this posted everywhere on social networks from PC's where the "Nature" Pagan is typing, in a artificially heated and air-conditioned environment, who probably drives a vehicle to and from their place of employment that is a organized institution designed to produce, sell or distribute a product or service, all, for the ALL mighty dollar, in order to survive in the community in which they live. Unless you live in a cave you are a part of an organized communityPagans are suppose to worship Nature, to me, it's one of many parts of what I consider my community. I have a Circle in my yard and I'm out there no matter what the weather communing with my Gods. Does that mean I can't commune with them if I'm in a building? And what about those who are disabled, who have great difficulty in getting into Nature? Most Circles I seen outside in our community, aren't handicap accessible. So, yeah I see a need for Pagan/Wiccan Temples and Buildings. I've always believed that Eclectic Wiccan/Pagan Churches were necessary and provided fellowship and assistance to those who practiced a more solitary path. It gives them a place to join without having to follow a pre-set Tradition. But the Church is more than just it's congregation. It is a part of the community in which it exists. Therefore it is not just there for the Pagans, it is there a a vital part of the community as well. To do this Pagan Churches have to get involved within their environment. In this way they have the opportunity to inform and educate the people to the sacredness of Nature. You can not do this without involving your fellow human beings.

Now in saying all this brings me to what's happening at SDCW - ATC. The Church has struggled for the last twenty years trying to serve the larger pagan community; but now we are about to receive some of the fruit of our labors. Home Depot in Jonesboro, AR has nominated the SDCW - ATC as their local charity. They will donate 5000 a month in building materials to the Church. The Church then gives back to the community in helping the Elderly and Aging and low income families with home repairs. A labor of love. This is our Community Out Reach Program. C.O.R.P. To get this established and under way the national organization GOOD360 is the partner with Home Depot. There is a one time administration fee of 600, once paid Home Depot will continue to donate from now on to the Church! We are in the process of raising this money. We have done well so far with about 200 in donations to the Church; but our window of opportunity is shrinking. I'm requesting all who wish to help with our project please send your donations to your through paypal to sdcwatc@yahoo.com or mail checks, money orders to 104 Main St. Lake city, Ar. 72437.

Thank you and Blessed Be!

(Prior posts in the series are located in Category "Jesus the Magician")

In Chapter 4 Morton Smith examines a number of early depictions of Jesus by non-Christians that have been preserved outside of the Christian gospels. First Smith takes a look at the earliest non-Christian work to reference Jesus - namely, Josephus' "Antiquities". It is pointed out that not much can be gleamed from the two passages that mention Jesus in "Antiquities". The first passage merely references Jesus as the brother of James who was illegally brought to trial and executed. The second passage as it exists today is, according to Smith, a rewrite with numerous Christian elements inserted at some point subsequent to its original composition. Accounting for these extraneous Christian elements, the author conveys that the original composition likely advanced the view that Jesus was a miracle worker who led the Jews astray and who indulged in impiety while claiming to be more than a man.

Next Smith considers some of the portrayals of Jesus preserved within rabbinic stories that stem roughly from the same time as Josephus' "Antiquities". In one of the stories ascribed to the distinguished rabbi Eliezer, Jesus is identified as the son of Panteri/Pantera (and its variants). Smith points out that this name was not a very common name at the time and speculates that one possible candidate for this mysterious "Pantera" might be a Sidonian archer named Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera, who served in Palestine about the time of Jesus' birth. Next Smith considers another very cryptic passage by Eliezer in which he sees hidden references to Jesus as someone educated in magic and tattooed with spells during a sojourn in Egypt.

After completing his examination of rabbinic literature, Smith turns to an inspection of the Roman depictions of Jesus preserved in the reports of Suetonius and Tacitus, two Roman historians who were active in the early second century. He also touches upon the writings of Lucian, a Roman poet. Some of the charges brought against Jesus in these writings contain the accusations that Jesus promoted "hatred of the human race" and "cannibalism," both of which Smith argues were common charges against magicians.

Subsequently, Smith turns to an assessment of Palestinian anti-Christian propaganda preserved and responded to by the Christian apologist Justin Martyr, who wrote in Rome between 150 and 165 A.D. It is pointed out by Smith that we learn from Justin that Christianity is viewed by many as a "godless and libertine heresy" that originated with Jesus, a Galilean magician. Justin's writings also indicate that the Palestinian priests and Sanhedrin denied the resurrection and claimed that Jesus' body was stolen.

Smith argues that all of the preceding depictions of Jesus stem from Palestinian traditions originating from direct observations of Jesus. According to Smith, a slightly different depiction of Jesus began to emerge from pagan observations of Christian communities in the Diaspora. These depictions portray Jesus as a teacher who introduced a new "initiation," which Smith contends should be interpreted as meaning that Jesus was viewed as the founder of a new mystery cult.

To round off this chapter Smith makes the case that the very fact that Jesus was later invoked as a source of magical power in both Christian and pagan spells and exorcisms indicates the existence of a longstanding tradition that links Jesus with magic. He also contends that the very nature of early Christian communities themselves probably helped to perpetuate the idea that Jesus and his followers where practicing magicians. According to Smith, Christian talk of mutual love and the Christian community's inclination to refer to its members as "brothers" and "sisters," when taken together, led to charges of promiscuity and incest. The idea of Christian communalism led to speculations of polyamorous relationships between husbands and wives. Above all, the practice of the Eucharist led to charges of cannibalism. According to Smith, all of the above charges leveled against the Christian communities were charges typical of those leveled against magicians as well.

To bring an end to the chapter Smith combines the views of Jesus' opponents preserved both within and outside the gospels to offer a sketch of Jesus' life "as it was pictured by those who did not become his disciples." (Smith, 67)

What follows below is Smith's "sketch" of the life of "Jesus the Magician" in its entirety.

"The son of a soldier named Panthera and a peasant woman married to a carpenter, Jesus was brought up in Nazareth as a carpenter, but left his home town and, after unknown adventures, arrived in Egypt where he became expert in magic and was tattooed with magical symbols or spells. Returning to Galilee he made himself famous by his magical feats, miracles he did by his control of demons. He thereby persuaded the masses that he was the Jewish Messiah and/or the son of a god. Although he pretended to follow the Jewish customs, he formed a small circle of intimate disciples whom he taught to despise the Jewish Law and to practice magic. These he bound together and to himself by ties of "love," meaning sexual promiscuity, and by participation in the most awful magical rites, including cannibalism - they had some sort of ritual meal in which they ate human flesh and drank blood. Surrounded by this circle he travelled from town to town deceiving many and leading them into sin. But he was not always successful. The members of his own family did not believe him; when he went back to Nazareth his townspeople rejected him and he could do no miracle there. Stories of his libertine teaching and practice leaked out and began to circulate. The scribes everywhere opposed him and challenged his claims. Finally, when he went to Jerusalem the high priests had him arrested and turned him over to Pilate, charging him with the practice of magic and sedition. Pilate had him crucified, but this did not put an end to the evil. His followers stole his body from the grave, claimed he had risen from the dead, and, as a secret society, perpetuated his practices." (Smith, 67)

With all the drama and controversy I'm actually happy to see the end of the Top 25 Blogs of Faith by Moms at Circle of Moms.

Many blogs have posted about this contest and I'm sure they've probably seen record voting. Mrs. B is hanging in there at the number one slot at the time of this post with 12,363 votes. Her closest competitor is tailing her by about 400 votes. It looks as though it could be a close one.

I am very happy to see our community come together and cast votes every day. I've watched as the Pagan Mom's moved from just outside the top 25 to the majority of them being within the top 25.

That says a lot of our community. There's a lot of great information on that page and I'm extremely proud to say that I'm a follower and reader of the majority of the blogs listed there.

Keep up the great work ladies!

Namaste & Blessed Be

Sosanna

)O(Read Confessions of a Modern Witch

I have posted on this before but this time I brought a camera. The Carmelite Monastery near Allentown PA is a wonderful place to go to pray and worship and to "get alone" with God. It is the home of a small order of Carmelite cloistered nuns who follow the charism of Saint Therese of Lisieux. Each Sunday afternoon at 3:30 they have benediction which is open to the public as well as daily Mass at 7 AM. At the end of benediction, you can go forward and venerate a first class relic of St. Therese of Lisieux. We enjoy going to Christmas midnight Mass there because it's a bit quieter. There are priests from the diocese who take turns celebrating the Mass for the sisters (who remain unseen behind an iron grate) and the public.

Also they have a very cool little self-serve bookstore and gift shop where you can purchase inexpensive sacramentals, prayer cards, statues, and the story of their foundress Mother Theresa of Jesus.(Only Open on Sunday after Benediction) Finally, there is a room that contains the uncorrupted remains of their foundress and we often go there to obtain her intercessions for some serious concerns of ours. She is in the "pipeline" for sainthood. Can she intercede for us if she is not yet an "official" saint? Sure.

So if you get a chance when driving on Route 78 near the Quakertown exit, pull off and just a few minutes away is a nice retreat for your heart and soul. After you are done reading this, say a prayer for an increase in vocations to this order. They are very small and risking getting smaller as the sisters are very few in number but very many in years!

This is a handy, comprehensive guide to a wide range of topics relating to the awesome power and cult of Satan, in myriad forms and under many different names, from ancient times to the present. Distilled from hundreds of reliable sources both religious and secular, the entries include men and movements, orders and objects, rites, rituals, incantations, legends, and occult practices that have fascinated the mind of man through the ages.

This book contains facts relating to a host of unorthodox beliefs and irrational acts which have only recently come to light. The simple manner in which even the most abstruse topics are handled will open the mysterious world of darkness to readers with no prior knowledge of the occult and to intrigue and inform those who seek to extend their knowledge of the subject. This lexicon defines all terms in satanic lore and witchcraft as well as offering sketches of prominent figures in the field over the centuries.

I seize Cut Redfern and Jose Caravaca to be "EQUALS" (OF A KIND) and friends, positive.

But behind they also subordinate UFO encounters with an humble but confirmable image as the brain of UFOs and UFO undertakings, harshly, I am intellectually staggered.

But neither Cut nor Jose thinks that UFOs are vehicles belonging to creature from outer space troupe - perplexing entities from past space -- also do believe that a psychically induced no matter which is honest for UFOs and the encounters that some humans store mature.

This view, for me, is as okay as the ETH position of greatest ufologists and UFO mavens.

Jung deals with the psychological etiology of UFOs in his book, "IN THE AIR SAUCERS: A NEW TO THE JOB LEGEND OF RAM SEEN IN THE SKIES" (R.F.C. HULL TRANSLATER) ["Princeton University Rub, 1978"].

Ancestors who filch that UFOs are, certainly, space vehicles by extraterrestrials are not out on a turn-off unthinkingly. Corporation from space is a tenable communication. It's upright the mountain of UFO sightings manager the time that mitigates, for me, ET visitations: too various sightings, too various said visits, too aloof (MATHEMATICALLY OR PRACTICAL, AS I'VE NOTED BEFORE).

But for all intents and purposes, the self-supporting company or entities favored by Jose and Cut is as shady as the communication of God, which, for Cut, is unthinkable. Cut is an "SKEPTIC" or so I negotiations.

The claim to store an outer surface image indirect with humanity has been addressed by various thinkers, generally about the belief in God, but the belief is legitimate to a belief in an outer surface image and in a good way for UFO undertakings, which has, as Jose and Cut see it (FADING SAYING SO BIRTHRIGHT), god-like attributes

A concise understanding of the life of God (FOR SOME) is found in Edward Glover's "FREUD OR JUNG?" ["Meridian Books, NY, 1956, Slip 156 ff."];

Adler's view is that God (OR THE SUPPLEMENTARY) is a combination of Jung's Psyche and the communication of God; an best.

It's the God within, not the God fading.

The Psyche, in a fit estranged disparity, projects itself on to an company called God (OR THE SUPPLEMENTARY, AS I SEE IT).

Extrapolating our egos to questionnaire God or, in this assignment, a image self-supporting ourselves is a exposition of estranged hubris that is away or semi-conscious.

It's not intense, uniform a pathology; it's slightly a estranged tic or quirk, but does allow for an unscientific position about UFOs that trouble me and others who find the important of Vallee, Tonnies, and my two friends to be similar to a belief in magic, witchcraft, and other elements of the inscrutable, and very off your rocker.

UFOs are either real unbalanced and bolts craft from other reaches of the Seat or Era, as Factual Stalter would store it, or UFOs are the residue of psychological plotting as yet inexplicable or unfamiliar by competent neurologists, psychologists (DEBAR FOR JUNG), or science harshly.

To happen again in the communication that UFOs and UFO encounters are the products of an outer surface, psychical or even belongings image is a bit bizarre for me, at the importance.

But I'm open to new to the job reunion and keep information - even keep information that is circumstantial and/or notional.

This more an indictment of religion than a petition for animal rights: but I detest extremists of all kinds.

How PETA twists religion to push animal "rights."

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been widely criticized for its campaign comparing Nazi Holocaust victims to farm animals, its blind insistence that Jesus was a vegetarian, and it callous attempts to cheapen the symbols and rituals of Roman Catholicism. But a new report from the Center for Consumer Freedom indicates that these offensive gestures are just the tip of a larger iceberg.

I'm pretty much in favor for most of that, with the exception of comparing the Holocaust to farm animals. I'm a speciesist: so I tend to favor my species over others.

This eye-opening report includes an inventory of scripture contradicting PETA's claim that only vegetarians can be observant Christians, Jews, Mormons, and Muslims.

A limited number of bound, printed copies are available to religious leaders and credentialed journalists.

No attributions? Interesting.

INTRODUCTION

"[H]owever sympathetically you interpret the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, it puts animals in a fundamentally different category from human beings... I think in the end we have, reluctantly, to recognize that the Judeo-Christian religious tradition is our foe."

At the "Animal Rights 2002" national convention, "Animal Liberation" author and avowed atheist Peter Singer lamented that "mainstream Christianity has been a problem for the animal movement." Two days later at the same event, a program director with the Fund for Animals issued a warning: "If we are not able to bring the churches, the synagogues, and the mosques around to the animal rights view," he cautioned, "we will never make large-scale progress for animal rights in the United States."

I made it quite evident in 2009 how I felt about Singer and his utilitarianism: my verdict still stands in that regard.

In the hope of converting Planet Earth's religious majority into vegetarians, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has taken these challenges seriously. The group regularly searches for "faith-based campaigners" to spread the gospel of vegetarianism. And like Peter Singer, acknowledged by PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk as her life's inspiration, the group's own odd evangelism actively seeks to confront and challenge the beliefs of Jews, Catholics, Protestant Christians, Mormons, and Muslims -- often in deliberate defiance of their respective scriptures.

The whole problem here, is that when you fight fire with fire, you end up with nothing but ash. In those imaginary worlds flooded with allegorical whimsy, no two interpretations will agree.

We're better off convincing the believers they believe in crap, than trying to reason with them on their own terms.

PETA generally avoids alienating Hindus, whose "bad karma" prohibitions against killing most animals have endeared them to animal rightists. But Hindu law expressly permits eating meat. Similarly, the Buddhist world has (so far) been spared PETA's impious tantrums, although many Buddhists eat meat -- including the Dalai Lama.

'Impious'? Well, the article was written to try to 'bridge' the gaps.

In its religious outreach, as with everything else the group attempts, PETA has blindly pursued offensive strategies without regard for the consequences. Instead of earning a reputation for "kindness, compassion," and other qualities associated with religious faithfulness, PETA pursues campaigns that offend, provoke, and otherwise show contempt for the faithful.

Shit, what playbook is the author reading? Religious faithfulness usually lacks any real kindness or compassion: it's the temperament of the people. Or as I like to say, it's about biology, not ideology.

PETA claims -- despite ample evidence to the contrary -- that Jesus Christ was a vegetarian. (The six-volume, 7,000-page "Anchor Bible Dictionary" doesn't even include an entry for "vegetarianism.") A PETA website urges Muslims to eat no meat, in open contradiction to the Qur'an.

PETA holds protests at houses of worship, even suing one church that tried to protect its members from Sunday-morning harassment. Its billboards and advertisements taunt Christians with the message that livestock (not Jesus) died for their sins.

That's somewhat overboard - what people do with their own time is nobody's business.

PETA declares, contrary to a wealth of rabbinical teaching, that ritual kosher slaughter is inherently cruel and barbarous. It directs its Jewish members (and any other Jews who will listen) to abstain from eating lamb during the Passover seder. And the group's infamous "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign crassly compares the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide with farm animals.

Way overboard - also a non sequitor.

Along the way, PETA has considered "Thou Shalt Not Steal" a commandment of convenience, lifting copyrighted materials without permission from a Catholic religious order, a popular television show, and even the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. PETA's mission to bring carnivores under the tofu tent routinely ignores prohibitions against "taking the Lord's name in vain." And the group's official endorsement of arson and other violence against animal-rights targets comes most often from its leading parsnip pulpitarian, a man who publicly holds himself up as an example of "Christian mercy" while privately advocating "blowing stuff up and smashing windows" and "burning meat trucks."

I spent half an hour googling, trying to find somewhere where somebody got killed. With no luck. There are crazy extremist in every group: we even find them sometimes in the ranks of atheists (though not very often: usually it's some raging anti-Semitic nutcase, or a conspiracy loon. Sigh.).

Because of PETA's obnoxious and often hateful rhetoric (and its brazen association with the violent underbelly of the animal rights movement), its voice is frequently condemned by mainstream religious leaders and increasingly unwelcome among worshippers.

It's always a mistake to play on a level field with 'believers': they will almost always assume that they are on a higher moral ground than others, and rationality will likely never prevail.

Life will someday be easier, when the barbaric anachronism of religion is gone. It will make rational debate simpler, and the blind adherence to outdated rules irrelevant.

As to the other topic? Medical studies tell us that humans should eat a balanced diet - an excess of one food group over another is usually not healthy. Should we treat livestock better? Of course we should - they taste better that way.

But inflicting pain and terror on lesser species? That's bad news. It shows a callous side to the human condition that we need to change.